In my opinion, Hanyang University has a well-prepared internship system. I was a junior in the first semester of the year 2013, and one day I received a text message about recruiting for a summer intern. Since I was interested in working as an intern, I looked at the homepage of the Office of International Cooperation. I found there were many different kinds of internship programs in Australia, Malaysia, the USA, Japan, and so on. I had not experienced any internship program before, so I applied for an internship program that I was greatly interested in.

Among the various internship programs, I applied for a Malaysia program because I was interested in The Sun, the Malaysian English newspaper. Since I have a dream of becoming a journalist, I really wanted to see how professional journalists work and live there. After I got accepted, I had an interview with a staff member of the Malay local agency. During the interview, I expressed my thoughts about which company I want to work, and I emphasized that I really wish to work in.

Although there were three to four orientation sessions, I think these were not really effective. Students not only on the Seoul Campus, but also from Ansan, Konkuk University, and Kookmin University had to visit Seoul Campus of the Hanyang University several times, to participate in these orientations. I thought they were waste of time because not all of the orientations contained important and/or new information that were helpful to students.

At the end of July, a number of other students and I departed for Malaysia. When I arrived there, for about 2 weeks, we were educated about English and culture in the Malay local agency. I cannot say the classes were significant part of my life in Malay, but we had fun getting to know the local teachers and other students. After the classes, I had another interview with the Malay local agency, and found out there was a problem. Contrary to what I heard from the interviewer in Korea, the Malay interviewer said that he was not sure if The Sun had an empty position for me to fill. I could not understand why the Korean interviewer did not check the opening beforehand, and why they did not notify me of this problem even after I arrived in Malaysia. I requested the Malay agency many times to check if I could work as an intern in the SUN and fortunately, I could join The Sun thanks to these efforts.

After many twists and turn, I was satisfied with the internship activities in which I participated and I learned a lot from my experience. The Malay employees were very optimistic and friendly. They did not think I was bothersome and taught me how to do the work. In addition, not only did they ask me lots of questions during lunch time, but they also let me join the get-togethers they participated in after working hours. They showed thoughtful consideration when I wanted to learn about aspects of Malay culture. I gained courage from their kindness. Therefore, whenever I had something I do not know about I always asked them and learned from their answers. Moreover, if they invited me to a meeting, I participated thankfully every time. On the last day of working in the company, we exchanged our favorite foods. I gave them chocolates made in Korea and received Malay moon cakes from them.

I was afraid at first about doing the intership because I did not have much experience being in a foreign country. However, I was able to have a wonderful time thanks to the warm-hearted and generous local Malay people. The internship program I did there was a turning point for me in that I became confident about living and working with people who have different appearances and languages. It was a great opportunity for me to grow and mature.